Month: September 2018

The Bank of Coushatta was founded in Coushatta in 1897. It has grown and increased service to the area many times over. The original bank building survived the great fire of 1918. It is the only structure from old Coushatta on the river that survives to this day.

Today the bank makes another major growth stride. Here is the bank’s announcement:

SHREVEPORT, LA — James G. Bethard, Chariman of the Board, Jerry Glover, President, Joel Ossmann, Vice President, Shreveport location, directors, employees, and customers of Bank of Coushatta, will join together on Wednesday, September 26, at 11 o’clock for a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new Bank of Coushatta Shreveport branch at 9391 Ellerbe Road.

Approvals were granted for the Shreveport branch earlier this summer by the FDIC and OFI. The branch is scheduled to open in early 2019.

On July 30, 1897 the Bank of Coushatta was chartered and opened for business in the Town of Coushatta, located then on the East bank of the Red River. Over the past 120 years the bank has grown and evolved along with the town of Coushatta and is now located at 1525 Ringgold Avenue. In November 2015 the Bank of Coushatta expanded into the Shreveport market when they opened a Loan Production Office located on Fern Avenue.

The new Shreveport branch will allow the bank continued growth and will offer Shreveport customers services such as deposit and savings accounts, personal loans, business loans, debit cards, and mobile banking which allows access to your accounts from anywhere at any time.

For more information about the new Shreveport location of Bank of Coushatta visit our website at www.theboc.com or call us at 318-932-3491.

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy asked Congress to finally get down to the business of creating a National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that middle class families can afford. Sen. Kennedy previously introduced comprehensive, bipartisan legislation to reform the NFIP.

Affordable Flood Insurance: “Weathering a hurricane is difficult enough without the added burden of trying to do it without insurance. And a National Flood Insurance Program isn’t doing its job if it’s so expensive people can’t afford to buy it. Unfortunately, that’s precisely what has happened in North and South Carolina.”

What Gives?: “Why don’t people have flood insurance? Because the costs are out of control and middle class families have little choice but to just roll the dice. Because Congress keeps playing games and people don’t have faith that the NFIP will be around to pay off. Because one or two members of Congress want to get a soundbite more than they want to help ordinary Americans protect their property. And if those members want to reform the program because they want to save the government money, they’re going about it the wrong way.”

What It’s All About: “Recovering from a natural disaster is about more than putting up drywall: It’s about our communities coming back safer, stronger and better prepared. The NFIP is an indispensable part of that effort to rebuild. But a flood insurance program isn’t useful if it’s too complicated to understand, or if it allows bad actors to take from hardworking families. We need rules that make sense, government websites that a normal person can navigate, quicker decisions by bureaucrats and a faster process to get disaster dollars to the folks who need them. Most importantly, though, people need to be able to afford buy a policy in the first place.”

Bring the whole family, the Red River Parish Fair and Rodeo is great entertainment for everyone. Ride the Rides, check out the exhibits, enjoy the parade and a great local band, and laugh at the rodeo clowns.

On Thursday the Fair Parade rolls through the streets of Coushatta. It will feature many floats from schools, groups and businesses in our area. Form up begins at the fairgrounds. The parade rolls out at 5:00. Get a good spot along the route and be sure to shout “throw me something mister!”

Thrown Together is a local band that has been wowing audiences in the parish. They will make a special appearance at the fair on Friday evening from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.

The Johnson Brothers Midway has rides for the whole family. The midway opens at 6:00 pm on Tuesday October 2nd. It will be open every night through Saturday. There is a midway special with $1.00 rides from 3:00 to 6:00 pm on Friday night. Armband nights are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

This years exhibits include livestock, horses, chicken, and rabbits. Livestock check-in is Tuesday beginning at 8:00 am. That is also the day for moving in exhibit booths. Thursday night there will be the Horse Show. Registration is at 4:00 and the show begins at 6:30.

Friday and Saturday nights are rodeo nights. Both nights there will be LRCA, UPRA, TSRA Rodeo produced by J2 Rodeo Company.

Next week is fair week! Get your armbands now and come prepared to have a great time.

A commemorative pen was presented to a member of VFW Post 7287 for his service to the organization. David Fields served this past year as the Commander of VFW District 12 (northwest Louisiana). His pen was presented by the 2018-19 District Commander Joe Smith.

Last Saturday Fields was presented with a one year gold pen with diamond during the VFW District 12 meeting held in Shreveport. Fields was Commander of the district for the 2017-18 year.

Currently Fields is a member of the Coushatta post and holds the position of Post Adjutant. Fields is on active duty with the Louisiana National Guard and is stationed at the armory in Coushatta.

Ginger Craig asked the Journal to pass along the word on their RRHS Softball/Golf fundraiser coming up.

We are selling Down Home Sausage Dog lunch plates for delivery or pick up Tuesday, October 2nd at the Fairgrounds Food Booth from 10:30-12:45….plate includes Grilled Down Home Sausage Dog with onions and bell peppers, chips, and a dessert for $10 per plate…the softball/golf team members are taking pre-orders thru Thursday, Sept 27th. Folks can purchase a ticket from any team member or Coach Thrasher or Coach Craig…plates may also be purchased at Fairgrounds Oct. 2nd from 10:30-12:45.

Any and all donations will be appreciated as well.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. On Friday, October 5th there will be an information session combined with some health screenings. It is being hosted by the Red River Parish Health Unit with assistance from the MLK Health Center’s H.E.A.R.T. program.

The deer rifle raffle at Red River Industries ends soon. Tickets are $5. For more information call 318-932-6520.

Red River High’s football team is at home Friday night. The Bulldogs host Richwood. Riverdale’s Rebels are on the road, traveling to Franklin Academy at Winnsboro. Both games may be heard on The Journal’s website or social media pages. Air time is 6:45 and kickoff at 7:00 for both teams.

More rewards for students who do outstanding work. The PAW Parents at the elementary school posted recently, “We presented these awesome kiddos their paw pack gifts today. The kids were all nominated by their teachers. A boy and a girl from each grade were chosen. Congrats to the lucky winners for the month of September! We will be doing this every month!”

The elementary school PAW Parents group is very active doing things that benefit the children who attend. They also do many things for the teachers and staff. Other schools have similar support groups. The Journal would like to hear from all of them. We’ll publicize the positive things that are happening in our schools.

If you noticed the large plume of smoke rising from south of the town on Thursday morning it was a sign of progress. Construction workers this week began work on two new ball fields.

The smoke came from burning the trees that are being cleared from property the school system recently acquired. Workers fired up the heavy equipment and lit the piles about 6:00 am Thursday.

Just to the south of the stadium construction has begun on the baseball field. So far they’ve removed the topsoil between the stadium fence and the bus barn.

This is all part of the new sport complex to be built around the current football field. At present engineers and architects are putting the finishing touches on the layout of the complex. Superintendent Alison Hughes announced at the September school board meeting that the finalized design will soon be made public.